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October 17, 2017

Mines Professors Connected To Landmark Cosmic Discovery

Artist’s illustration of two merging neutron stars. The rippling space-time grid represents gravitational waves that travel out from the collision, while the narrow beams show the bursts of gamma rays that are shot out just seconds after the gravitational waves. Swirling clouds of material ejected from the merging stars are also depicted. The clouds glow with visible and other wavelengths of light. Image Credit: NSF/LIGO/Sonoma State University/A. Simonnet

October 17, 2017 – Astronomers and astrophysicists worldwide are celebrating a landmark discovery: For the first time, scientists have not only detected gravitational waves – ripples in space-time – from the collision of two neutron stars but also follow-up signals from the merger at multiple wavelengths on the electromagnetic spectrum, the first “multi-messenger” detection of its kind. Read More

Bigelow Aerospace and United Launch Alliance Announce Agreement To Place A B330 Habitat In Low Lunar Orbit

October 17, 2017 – Bigelow Aerospace and United Launch Alliance (ULA) are working together to launch a B330 expandable module on ULA’s Vulcan launch vehicle. The launch would place a B330 outfitted module in Low Lunar Orbit by the end of 2022 to serve as a lunar depot. Read More

Wrap your mind around this: Neutron stars, the collapsed cores of once-large stars, are thought to be so dense that a teaspoon of one would weigh more than Mt. Everest. These are the kind of amazing astrophysical features that help fuel the research interests of Professor John Bally of the Department of Astrophysical and Planetary Sciences, who studies the formation of stars and planets (including luminous, transient objects in space).

In 1967, while much attention was focused on landing humans on the Moon before the end of the decade, NASA also managed an active planetary exploration program at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California,, targeting Earth’s closest neighbors Venus and Mars.

Imagine cramming 20 years’ worth of science experiments — each requiring resources such as water, electricity and data connections — into a few closets in your home. For the crew members aboard the International Space Station, this is a reality. Thanks to an increase in investigations coming in through the National Lab and more demand for exploration technology development payloads, the space station is going to have to make room for a whole new wardrobe.

An unprecedented catalogue of more than 21 000 images taken by a webcam on ESA’s Mars Express is proving its worth as a science instrument, providing a global survey of unusual high-altitude cloud features on the Red Planet.

Europe’s first all-electric telecom satellite has reached its final working orbit above the Pacific Ocean. Eutelsat-172B, built for Eutelsat by Airbus, carries new technologies developed through ESA-led projects, including fully articulated thruster arms. The satellite relied entirely on electric thrusters to climb from its initial orbit into its planned slot over the equator some 35 800 km up, and is now using them to hold position.

The United States and Australia have been cooperating in civil space for more than 50 years, and Tuesday, Oct. 17, the two countries reaffirmed their partnership with a new agreement to continue use of critical spacecraft tracking and communication facilities in Australia. Acting NASA Administrator Robert Lightfoot and His Excellency the Honorable Joe Hockey, Australia’s ambassador to the United States of America, signed the new 25-year agreement during a meeting at the Australian embassy in Washington, D.C.

Long-duration stratospheric research missions could allow scientists to collect vast amounts of data continuously for their payloads. Such missions could benefit NASA by maturing future space technology as well as allowing for Earth observations, such as storm monitoring and forest fire tracking.

Lockheed Martin has launched the second cycle of its ‘Girls’ Rocketry Challenge’ program, a Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) initiative designed to enable female high school students in Japan engage in real-life experiments that will further pique their curiosity and potential interest in STEM and related careers.

Fewer large near-Earth asteroids (NEAs) remain to be discovered than astronomers thought, according to a new analysis by planetary scientist Alan W. Harris of MoreData! in La Canada, California. Harris is presenting his results this week at the 49th annual meeting of the American Astronomical Society’s Division for Planetary Sciences in Provo, Utah.

A University of Michigan doctoral student has logged two pieces of evidence that may support the existence of a planet that could be part of our solar system, beyond Neptune. Some astronomers think this alleged planet, called Planet Nine, exists because of the way some objects in space, called “Trans-Neptunian Objects,” or TNOs, behave.

At the 49th Annual Division for Planetary Sciences Meeting in Provo, Utah, astronomers led by Vishnu Reddy at the University of Arizona confirm true nature of one of Earth’s companions on its journey around the sun.

Research by planetary scientists at Brown University finds that periodic melting of ice sheets on a cold early Mars would have created enough water to carve the ancient valleys and lakebeds seen on the planet today.